Late-arriving storm serves as reminder

Eastern North Carolina braced itself for Sandy’s wind, rain and high surf with the weariness of a region that has “been there and done that” one time too many.

Eastern North Carolina braced itself for Sandy’s wind, rain and high surf with the weariness of a region that has “been there and done that” one time too many.

For most, the idea of yet another hurricane hovering off the coast or beating a path up through our beaches was numbingly familiar —and about as welcome as fox in the hen house.

Fortunately for the Carolinas, though not so for terrific for the Mid-Atlantic and Northeast, Sandy wasn’t interested in doing most of her damage here; however, North Carolina residents reap no satisfaction from out-of-control weather conditions bypassing this area only to hit someplace else.

It’s a shared misery no matter in whose lap Sandy happened to land.

As unwelcome as she was, Sandy did accomplish one undeniable goal: She reminded everyone along the so-called and very real East Coast “hurricane belt” that simply because it’s late in the year, the fat lady’s hasn’t necessarily run out of notes.

In the life of a hurricane season, September has historically ruled as the Atlantic’s favored month for big storms, but hurricanes don’t always align with the calendar and don’t make — or keep — promises. Mother Nature has never played by our rules.

Hurricane forecasts, like hurricane seasons, are simply guidelines based on scientific calculations, probability and past history. They’re useful because they give us a set of parameters in which to watch and weigh what might be coming. But, while storm prediction has come a long way since the days when a hurricane could barrel ashore completely unannounced and wipe out an entire community, modern science has gifted man with the ability to not only see her coming, but predict — admittedly with limited degrees of success – where she will visit and when.

That gives us time to load up with provisions, plan escape routes and even leave, if we need to. That’s something Onslow County’s residents didn’t have when a calamitous hurricane struck back in 1752.

Historical accounts tell us that the unnamed storm washed into the county seat of Johnston, destroying the newly constructed courthouse and obliterating the small settlement. With its records lost, the county was without deeds and all of the day-to-day commerce records that it needed to survive and do business. Onslow County rebuilt its courthouse in Wantland’s Ferry, which was named Jacksonville in the mid-1800s in honor of President Andrew Jackson.

Jacksonville stands today despite weathering dozens of storms since those days, and Sandy isn’t likely to stand as any more than a footnote in local history.

For now, the storm serves as a reminder that nature is neither bound nor, it seems, impressed by man’s assumed timetables.